Fagioli all'Uccelletto (Tuscan Baked Beans)

We were in a bind for dinner last night and I had to throw something together last minute. We had some sun-dried tomato and mushroom risotto mix that I'd gotten at the farmers' market a few weeks ago, so that gave us a starting point for the meal, but it definitely wasn't going to be enough on its own. Originally I had been contemplating making some meat-stuffed Moroccan flatbreads, but that still left us short on veggies. I consulted Cooking from an Italian Garden for ideas on how to round out the meal. In the end I opted to make this white bean dish along with a saucy green bean dish to add some protein and vegetables to our risotto dinner. It worked out pretty well! Although I would be tempted to add more tomatoes next time.

Fagioli all'Uccelletto

Slightly adapted from Cooking from an Italian Garden by Paola Scaravelli and Jon Cohen

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. flour
• 1 1/2 c. dried white beans¹
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3-4 fresh sage leaves (or ~1 tsp. dried sage)
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2-3/4 c. diced tomatoes

Directions

1. Mix the flour into 1L of water and add the beans. Soak for 8-12 hours.
2. Drain and rinse the beans.
3. Place the beans in a pressure cooker with enough water to cover them and pressure cook for 20 minutes.
4. Allow a 15-minute natural release and then drain the beans (reserving the cooking water for soup if desired).
5. Heat the oil over medium heat.
6. Add the garlic, sage, pepper, and salt and cook for ~1 minute.
7. Add the beans and cook for ~5 minutes.
8. Add the tomatoes and cook for another 5 minutes.²

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¹ I used navy beans because that's what I had on hand, but cannellini beans (white kidney beans) would probably be the best choice here. ^Back
2 I reversed the order of these last two steps. I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes in practice, but I'll probably try it the other way around next time to find out. ^Back